Tens of thousands of spectators turned out to attend Friday’s opening ceremony of the ninth Francophone Games in DR Congo’s capital Kinshasa, despite security and safety fears.Gathering athletes and artists from mostly-French speaking countries, the Games are being held for the first time in the central African metropolis. Some 80,000 people turned out to watch the evening opening ceremony, which features a parade of about 3,000 flag-waving athletes in the city’s Stade Des Martyrs. The ceremony began in a festive atmosphere, and amid tight security, at the planned the time of 6 pm (1700 GMT), on the dot — a rarity in habitually unpunctual Kinshasa.In the audience, Bonheur, a 24-year-old student, said he though organising the games in Kinshasa was “a very good idea”. “It will allow the country to develop”, he told AFP. His fellow student Epaphrodit, 24, agreed: “If we only focus on the problems, we won’t make any progress”.After the parade, a “sound and light show… will showcase a Congo that’s changing”, according to government spokesman Patrick Muyaya.The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was chosen in 2019 as host of the Games, an event held every four years which combines both sport and culture.They were originally scheduled to take place in 2021, but were postponed because of the Covid pandemic and then delayed again last year because the facilities were not ready.Questions over security and safety have dogged the Games in the run-up to the opening.Several delegations have called off their participation, or sent much-reduced teams. The Canadian province of Quebec, for example, has pulled out.Over the past several weeks, government authorities in DRC have repeatedly stressed that the nation is up to the task.- Eastern Congo crisis -The DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite vast mineral wealth. Militias also ravage the east, with one, the M23, having captured swathes of territory since re-emerging from dormancy in late 2021.The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting M23 rebels, which independent UN experts and several western countries including the United States agree with, despite denials from Kigali.Tensions between the neighbouring countries have also spilled over into the Games. Louise Mushikiwabo, the head of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF) — the French-speaking equivalent of the Commonwealth — is a Rwandan national. Despite the DRC government at first announcing that she would attend, Mushikiwabo’s office denied it this week saying she hadn’t received an invitation.- Safety fears -At the same time as ramping up military spending to respond to the conflict in the east, the Congolese government has had to spend significant sums building new sports facilities in its capital. The total cost is unclear, but the government has cast its outlay as an investment in the youth of the country, who will be able to use brand-new sporting installations. The Games’ organisers have also flatly rejected accusations that the event will be unsafe. Some 4,500 police officers and members of the Republican Guard have been deployed in Kinshasa, while a private-security firm has been hired to guard the facilities. A demonstration was due to take place against the Games, the IOF, France and Rwanda on Friday morning, but a heavy police presence was dissuading protesters from turning out, an AFP journalist saw.The 10-day Games run until August 6 and will feature nine sports competitions and 11 cultural contests. Men’s football, women’s basketball, athletics, road cycling, African wrestling, judo and table tennis are among the sports included.The cultural competitions include painting, sculpture and photography, and song and dance.
